Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Systematic Investigation of the Spanish Subjunctive

罗曼语族在两种动词“语气”（虚拟语气和陈述语气）之间有一种富有成效的对比。虚拟选择分句是指说话者表达愿望、要求、怀疑、情感、可能性、目的或原因的分句。根据传统的语法，西班牙语作为一种罗曼语，也遵守这些限制。然而，与预期相反的是，西班牙语使用者在许多“需要虚拟语气”的环境中选择陈述句。许多用来描述情绪选择的框架只关注规定性的正确选择模式。因此，传统的语义学理论对虚拟分句中指示成分的意外使用没有涉及。因此，本论文的研究项目，旨在发展一个语义语用的语气，可以解释语气变化是非规定性的。然而，在建立这样一个账户之前，目前的项目试图确认这种差异存在的程度，以及存在的方言。通过这种方式，一个更全面的描述西班牙语的语气系统，占方言的具体和非规定性的变化将成为可用。这将导致更好地理解西班牙语，在美国第二大最常见的语言，语料库研究将进行，以获得自然发生的例子，在八个传统的虚拟要求的情况下使用的语气。所获得的项目将被改编，以纳入可接受性判断任务（AJT）。我们的目标是测试如何特定的情况下影响参与者的意见，任何情绪的可接受性。从AJTs和后续访谈的结果将提供更深入的了解语义语用因素调节情绪变化的环境中，它不应该发生。实验的参与者将来自不同的西班牙方言。由于没有对西班牙语进行系统的、广泛的研究，该项目的数据将扩大现有的知识体系。此外，从理论的角度来看，这样的调查将有助于填补与情绪的非规定性用途相关的研究空白。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The Romance language family is known to have a productive contrast between two verbal 'moods', the subjunctive and the indicative. Subjunctive-selecting clauses are those in which a speaker expresses a desire, demand, doubt, emotion, possibility, purpose, or cause. According to traditional grammar, Spanish, being a Romance language, also adheres to these restrictions. However, contrary to what is expected, Spanish-speakers select the indicative in many 'subjunctive-requiring' environments. Many frameworks used to describe the choice of mood focus exclusively on prescriptively correct patterns of selection. As a result, the unexpected use of indicative in subjunctive clauses is left untouched by traditional semantic theory. This dissertation research project, thus, aims to develop a semanto-pragmatic account of mood that can explain mood variation that is non-prescriptive. However, prior to developing such an account, the current project seeks to confirm the extent to which this variability exists, as well as the dialects in which it is present. In this way, a more comprehensive description of the Spanish mood system that accounts for both dialect-specific and non-prescriptive variability will become available. This will lead to a better understanding of Spanish, the second most common language spoken in the U.S.A corpus study will be carried out in order to obtain naturally-occurring examples of mood use in the eight traditionally subjunctive-requiring contexts. The items obtained will be adapted for inclusion in an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT). The objective is to test how specific contexts affect participant views on the acceptability of either mood. Results from the AJTs and follow-up interviews will provide greater insight into the semanto-pragmatic factors conditioning mood variation in environments in which it is not supposed to occur. The participants forming part of the experiment will come from various Spanish dialects. Since no systematic, widespread study of Spanish has been carried out, data from this project will expand on the body of knowledge that currently exists. Additionally, in terms of a theoretical standpoint, such an investigation will help to fill the research gaps related to non-prescriptive uses of mood.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.